Anson Economic Development Corporation

If you follow business news around the region, you will probably see that October 5th is being celebrated by many area communities as Manufacturing Day, which begs the question; why doesn’t Anson County participate in this? By percentage of workforce engaged in manufacturing, Anson County, at 23%, is one of the strongest manufacturing centers in the state. We value and celebrate industry... just not exclusively on October 5th. Those who are familiar with the event calendar in the county know that the next several weeks are PACKED with traditional activities, Turn Back the Clock last week, the Oyster Roast on Saturday, EDPNC’s Rural Conference, NC Works Workforce Conference, the Chamber’s annual dinner and many more. The fear is that putting Manufacturing Day in the middle of all these other events takes away from the focus on manufacturing and leads to “event burnout.” Instead, Anson County celebrates Manufacturing Day on the Thursday and Friday after Labor Day. There are fewer e...

On Friday, September 20th, hundreds of students from Anson County elementary schools will converge on Uptown Wadesboro for the inaugural K-5   Uptown Tour sponsored by Atrium Health. Students will tour uptown businesses and museums, as well as learning about proper nutrition through Atrium's 5210 program, and how to safely maneuver the town's stoplights, crosswalks and streets. The tour was envisioned by Anson County Schools and local businesses as a way to promote the uptown and its wide variety of cultural and entertainment activities to a new generation of Ansonians. Families from the more rural parts of the county may not be familiar with all the opportunities available to them right here in Wadesboro, and this is a way to expose them to things like the Ansonia Theater, Anson Historical Museum, Boggan-Hammond House and Ashe-Covington Medical Museum, along with historic uptown businesses such as the 110-year-old H.W. Little Hardware Store and 100-year-old Parsons Drug S...

AMI Machining, Inc. owner Todd Treadaway was named the 2019 Energizing Anson Award winner at the Anson County Industry Appreciation Breakfast held Friday, September 6th at Allen's Restaurant in Peachland, N.C. In 2018, Todd moved AMI from a small leased space in Polkton to a larger building which he built on a plot of land on US Highway 74 just west of downtown Peachland. In making the move, Treadaway more than doubled his manufacturing space to 18,000 square feet, retained the jobs of 17 Ansonians and created two new jobs along with an investment of more than $750,000. In presenting the award to Treadaway, Duke Energy (who sponsors the award) representative Tammy Whaley noted that while the AMI expansion may not have been the largest in the county in terms of job creation or investment, that there was nothing "small" about the business, and lauded Treadaway for his continuing commitment to improving the Anson County economy. Treadaway was the second Energizing ...

Shortly after he first of the year, every household in Anson County received a postcard from South Piedmont Community College announcing a program that has the potential to positively change the lives of thousands of Ansonians while simultaneously helping us to build the workforce we need to compete for economic development projects down the road. Called the Anson Advantage, this program offers free tuition and fees to any Anson County resident in one of more than 30 practical work skill programs the college offers. Offerings include such in-demand fields as HVAC, Culinary Arts, Electrical Systems, Industrial Maintenance and Welding, and range in duration from 10 weeks to 10 months. Different communities have gone about bridging the workforce gap in different ways. In Iredell County, I was involved in the development of a very good, but very elaborate, program called the North Carolina Manufacturing Institute. The idea behind the NCMI was that companies would join the organization, p...

As many of you are aware, REV Uptown is located in what was originally a Roses Store here in Uptown Wadesboro. One of the original decor plans for REV called for some framed prints of Roses Stores from that period. After conferring with Steve Bailey and finding that the Historical Society didn't have any photos of  the actual store, I decided to call Roses corporate office and see if they might be able to provide some. When I identified myself to the Roses representative on the line as the "economic development director from Wadesboro," he initially made some comments about "nothing finalized yet" before I explained the purpose of my call. I wrote it off to mistaken identity, but in retrospect... The worst kept secret in Anson County right now is that Roses is returning to Wadesboro. They will be moving into the former Walmart space in Anson Station, between the Food Lion and the Tractor Supply. The store will be a Roses Express, which is a smaller footprint...

About a year ago, we announced without any fanfare that Project Kure had chosen Peachland as the location for its new sales, assembly and service facility. These “quiet” announcements are typically made at the company’s request because of timing issues regarding the marketing of their products and services or because they do not want competitors to know in advance what they are doing. For an economic developer, it always feels a little anticlimactic to simply say in a closed meeting that a project was won and just leave it at that, but we understand that the confidentiality of a project and the trust of the company is of paramount importance.  I had an opportunity today to visit Project Kure, which I can now reveal is VEIT North America, the U.S. subsidiary of poultry transportation equipment manufacturer VEIT, based in the Czech Republic. The facility is located about a half-mile east of downtown Peachland on U.S. Highway 74. You may have seen the distinctive white and red de...

Last week, I was asked to provide some economic projections based on the impacts of recently completed and proposed road construction in Anson County over the next 10 years. The three road projects specifically referenced are the Monroe Expressway, US74 Median and Wadesboro Bypass. Basically, I expect the population of Anson County to increase by 1% to 1.5% by 2025 based primarily on new residential and commercial development on the west side of the county. This increase will be almost entirely the result of the Monroe Expressway. We are also anticipating a similar level of growth in employment with the largest gains expected in Skilled and Semi-Skilled Construction Trades, Advanced Manufacturing Technology (especially as it relates to metal fabrication) and Logistics/Warehousing. The US74 Median project will likely have minimal impact on either population or employment, although the slight improvement in eastbound travel times from the eastern side of the county to the Port of Wi...